The Dispatch E-Edition

All current subscribers have full access to Digital D, which includes the E-Edition and
unlimited premium content on Dispatch.com, BuckeyeXtra.com, BlueJacketsXtra.com and
DispatchPolitics.com.
Subscribe
today!

More Articles

A year ago, state officials considered creating rules for oil and gas drilling rigs in state
parks that were much more stringent than the rules they now have proposed.

The rigs would have had to have been placed at least 1,500 feet from campgrounds; 1,200 feet
from lakes, streams and drinking-water wells; and 900 feet from trails, picnic areas and sites of
historic value, under rules discussed in May, according to documents released yesterday.

Two weeks ago, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources released proposed rules that would keep
the rigs at least 300 feet from most of those areas.

Information about the previous discussions comes from emails and documents that were shared
among agency officials drafting mineral-rights leases and drilling guidelines for parks and other
state lands.

Other emails contained a list of state parks, forests and wildlife areas in eastern Ohio that
could have been offered to drilling companies as early as January. That never happened.

“We look forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions,” wrote Gene Wells, the agency’s
real-estate administrator, in a Nov. 4, 2011, email to Joseph W. Haas of Reserve Energy. The Sierra
Club’s Ohio chapter had asked to see the same leases in October. The environmental advocacy group
then filed a lawsuit on April 9 demanding to see the public records.
The Dispatch asked to see them this spring. “These emails confirm my earlier suspicion
that ODNR has been consulting with the oil and gas industry on their rules all along,” said Jed
Thorp, manager of the Sierra Club’s Ohio chapter.

Carlo LoParo, a Natural Resources spokesman, said the earlier distance limits that were
discussed were “first-crack” estimates. He said Pennsylvania has a 300-foot limit for public lands.
“It’s a very early draft document assembled by staff unfamiliar with shale development and best
practices utilized in other states,” LoParo said.He said the agency did not offer land for leasing
in January, in part because it wasn’t clear whether the state owned the mineral rights to the oil
and gas. He said Reserve Energy acted as a consultant on leasing terms.On Sept. 30, state parks and
other state-owned lands were opened to drilling.

Interest in drilling for oil and gas in the Utica shale has energy companies offering many
eastern Ohio landowners more than $5,000 an acre to sign leases.

But environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, are concerned about pollution from drilling
and “fracking” in state parks. Fracking involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and
chemicals underground to break up the shale to release the oil and gas.

LoParo said that list did not take into account that federal restrictions would prevent drilling
in many wildlife areas. He said the state still is researching whether it owns the mineral rights
in several state parks and forests.

Haas, who owns Reserve Energy, said Natural Resources officials asked for his opinion on how to
structure oil and gas leasesHe said other issues were not discussed, including how far drilling
rigs should be located from campgrounds.LoParo said the release of public records was delayed
because the draft leases, guidelines and other information contained in the emails were “not
reflective of the public-policy direction of the administration.”